News reaches us that Hammer have decided to make their big screen version of scary stage play The Woman In Black in glorious 3D, bandwagon-jumping whores that they are (just kidding). I for one am firmly looking forward to the idea of everyone chucking as many bladed implements as they can at the screen throughout its running time - after all, who needs suspense?
Co-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group (Exclusive), Guy East, and CEO of Hammer Films, Simon Oakes, announced today with President of Alliance Films, Charles Layton, that Exclusive and Alliance will co-finance Hammer’s hotly anticipated new ghost story, The Woman in Black 3D, to be directed by James Watkins. This will be Hammer’s first 3D production. Alliance will also distribute the film in the United Kingdom (Momentum), Spain (Aurum), and Canada (Alliance). Exclusive Film Distribution, headed by Alex Walton, is handling worldwide sales of the title at Cannes.
The Woman in Black 3D is produced by Simon Oakes for Exclusive’s Hammer Films label and Richard Jackson at Talisman Films. Exclusive’s Nigel Sinclair and East are serving as Executive Producers along with Roy Lee for Vertigo Entertainment (The Ring). Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass) is adapting the screenplay based on Susan Hill’s best-selling novel. Production is expected to begin in the fall of 2010.
The Woman in Black follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black.
“James Watkins has a huge fanbase from his award-winning suspense horror Eden Lake. Jane Goldman thrilled audiences worldwide with her script for Kick-Ass, and Susan Hill’s extraordinarily chilling novel has won over readers everywhere,” says Simon Oakes.
Guy East continues, “Because of the tremendous pedigree of those involved, the interest in this project has been enormous for us from very early on, and we are now thrilled to have Alliance onboard as a partner. The recent decision to shoot the film in 3D will create a genuinely immersive experience for the audience.”
Charles Layton said, “We are delighted to be co-financing this ambitious 3D Hammer project with Exclusive. It fits in perfectly with our intent to acquire important, commercial films for our three territories. We feel that the subject matter will appeal equally in Spain as it will in the UK and Canada.”
Hill’s novel has become a modern classic, appearing on the national curriculum in the United Kingdom. The Woman in Black was also adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt, first performed at the Theatre-by-the-Sea in Scarborough, UK, in 1987. It moved to the Fortune Theatre in London’s West End in 1989, where it still successfully runs today, over twenty years later, and has been performed the world over.
Exclusive is currently in post-production on two other genre films: Matt Reeves’ Let Me In starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Elias Koteas, and Richard Jenkins (produced through its Hammer Films label, Overture Films will release the film in October, 2010) and Antti Jokinen’s The Resident starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace, and Christopher Lee (produced through Hammer Films).
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